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Cut the Levity! · Armstrong & Getty One More Thing

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Cut the levity. It's one more thing. I'm strong and geddy,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: one more thing. We are not going to cut the levity.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, we're going to focus on levity,
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  Speaker 1: particularly the levity of babies and the science around that,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: which is kind of interesting and uh, you know, Katie's pregnant,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: so that makes it extra exciting. My cut the levity
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  Speaker 1: is a line from my band teacher. When I was
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: about fifteen years old, Gladys fifteen years old in band
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: and somebody made a joke or something we're supposed to
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: be paying attention in practicing in my band teacher, as
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: band teachers, Will got very, very angry that we weren't
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: taking this music as seriously as he would like, and
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: he started on cut the levity. You hear me, cut
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: the levity, And there wasn't a one of us that
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: had the idea what the word levity meant. We were
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: just looking at each other and we just looked wide eyed.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, he was really angry. And then when he
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: went back to working with the obo's or something like that,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: we we're like, what's levity? Well, you learned something that day,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: and it was pre smartphones, so it wasn't like we
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: look it up real quick, so we left the room,
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  Speaker 1: not having any idea in what way we had angered him,
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  Speaker 1: what her offense was.
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  Speaker 2: He was an angry man, wasn't he?
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  Speaker 1: The band teachers are, as Joe and I explained. We've
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: explained it, and it makes sense because you are really, really,
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  Speaker 1: really good at something, playing a musical instrument. For reasons
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  Speaker 1: of bad luck or choice, you're now trying to teach
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  Speaker 1: people who don't give a crap about playing the trombone
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  Speaker 1: how to play the trombone. It makes you angry.
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  Speaker 2: It's it's for many, many people the best option for
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  Speaker 2: making a living at the only thing you really care
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  Speaker 2: about and are really good at, and.
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  Speaker 1: Being sprounded by people that don't care about what you've
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  Speaker 1: dedicated your life to would make you angry.
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  Speaker 3: So this might be a dumb question, but I take it.
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  Speaker 3: The kids in the band class don't want to be
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  Speaker 3: in that. I would think you would take that class
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  Speaker 3: because you want to learn the instrument.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Well, some people really really want to learn it, and
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: then there are people who kind of do, but you know,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not going to make it my life on it.
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  Speaker 1: And then there are people that do it because their
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  Speaker 1: parents wanted them to or whatever.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, because it's good for you to learn a musical instrument,
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  Speaker 2: but you're not motivated. Yeah, Oh, I hated practicing my trombone.
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  Speaker 1: How come I think back on that, because like boring,
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  Speaker 1: I practice, I practice a musical instrument every single day,
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  Speaker 1: very very rare that I don't practice school musical instrument
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  Speaker 1: at this point in my life. And but I hated
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: in high school. I don't know why. I wish I
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  Speaker 1: had have practiced.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I just the end to go. I think it was.
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  Speaker 2: The end goal was being reasonably capable at some piece
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  Speaker 2: of music you would never listen to willingly.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: That's part of it. Yeah, I'm not on the boring. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not at home practicing stuff I have no interest in. Obviously,
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  Speaker 1: why would I do that.
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  Speaker 2: I remember when I got into high school, and like
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: I was in the jazz band and we had a
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  Speaker 2: pretty good program. I would practice relentlessly my basic guitar parts. Yeah,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: I practiced number one they were hard, and number two
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  Speaker 2: the idea of being bad. Oh, I hated the idea
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  Speaker 2: of like the judges saying, yeah, rhythm section was sloppy.
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  Speaker 1: That would have killed me. I practiced for pet band
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  Speaker 1: because we would play pop tunes, popular songs or on
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  Speaker 1: the radio or whatever, and I like practicing those and
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  Speaker 1: being good at it. And you know, anyway, the levity
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  Speaker 1: thing was not meant to turn into a conversation about
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  Speaker 1: high school band. It was meant to start the levity.
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  Speaker 1: It was meant to get us into this conversation about
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  Speaker 1: the science of babies laughing. Here's a baby laughing. Now
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  Speaker 1: that baby's weirdly demonic. Do you have a different baby?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: About you? If you can listen to a baby laughing
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  Speaker 1: or watch a baby laughing and not smile, you you
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  Speaker 1: should be locked up. You're gonna do something awful if
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  Speaker 1: you're like sure, uh, the evolutionary brilliance of the baby giggle.
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  Speaker 1: It's a guest, as say in the New York Times today,
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  Speaker 1: by somebody who studies this sort of stuff. And they
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  Speaker 1: got their PhD as a psychologist and they were having
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  Speaker 1: become a mom and you know, just observing the baby
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  Speaker 1: laugh and what makes the baby laugh and then the
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  Speaker 1: baby starts doing things to make you laugh and all
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  Speaker 1: that sort of stuff. And then and then found out
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  Speaker 1: that like, there's hardly any research on this at all.
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  Speaker 1: For some reason. There's been this belief that there's lots
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  Speaker 1: of research on humor and what is humor and why
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  Speaker 1: we do it, and amice for older people and you know, surprise, incongruity,
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  Speaker 1: things that make people laugh, and it's a bonding experience
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  Speaker 1: and you're likely not to get punched if you're laughing
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  Speaker 1: with somebody, all these different things. But they had nothing
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  Speaker 1: on babies, and there has been an assumption, this person
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  Speaker 1: says they started studying it recently, there's been an assumption
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  Speaker 1: that it was just kind of like a nothing for babies.
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  Speaker 1: Their brains aren't developed in enough to have any like
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  Speaker 1: rhyme or reason behind it, which I was kind of surprised.
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  Speaker 1: I feel like, having had a couple of babies, and
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  Speaker 1: I've been around lots of babies in my life, but
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  Speaker 1: having had to myself, I didn't think it was meaningless.
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  Speaker 2: Did you think being something of an authority on humor? Uh,
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  Speaker 2: that's a ridiculous notion.
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  Speaker 1: Have you much experience with babies laughing? Katie?
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  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, my nieces, I had like little things
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  Speaker 3: that I knew each one of them.
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  Speaker 1: I would I could get them both.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's like as close to God as you
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  Speaker 2: can get.
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  Speaker 3: If there's no rhyme or reason behind it. How come
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  Speaker 3: specific things make them laugh.
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  Speaker 1: It's driven by the brain's limbic system. You see structures
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  Speaker 1: crucial for emotion, memory, and motivation. As I suspected.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you for clearing that up.
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  Speaker 1: By six months, the lab found infants can intentionally produce
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  Speaker 1: a laugh. I don't remember when it happened, but I
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  Speaker 1: could have told you in my own house when they
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  Speaker 1: were one of them, when either Sam or Henry was
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  Speaker 1: intentionally trying to make me make a laugh, I wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: have needed a lab. I wouldn't needed a white coat,
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  Speaker 1: I wouldn't have needed PhD letters in front of my name.
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  Speaker 1: But they've studied this. Six month olds will deploy laughter
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  Speaker 1: to prolong a game of Peekerboo, or to signal a
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  Speaker 1: desire to join in. Yeah, all these things ring true
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  Speaker 1: to me. But laughter does more than increase pleasurable social contact.
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  Speaker 1: Infant laughter, especially when it occurs in response to humor,
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  Speaker 1: signals a cognitive achievement. When an infant laughs at a
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  Speaker 1: dad wearing a spoon is a mustache, it reveals the
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  Speaker 1: baby's knowledge about spoons and mustaches, as well as about
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  Speaker 1: the person wearing it, which.
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  Speaker 4: Actually is a fairly sophisticated thought if you think about it. Yeah,
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  Speaker 4: uh huh, I've grasped the fact that you have something
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  Speaker 4: on your face that's always there, and it's never been
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  Speaker 4: a spoon before.
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  Speaker 1: Now it's a spoon, which normally we use freading.
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  Speaker 2: That is funny, ithit you with a spoon instead of
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  Speaker 2: a mustache.
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  Speaker 1: You cut up. This New York Times article has endless
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  Speaker 1: clips of babies laughing at different things, and some of
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  Speaker 1: the reviews of this article were like, I feel like
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  Speaker 1: you just wrote this so you could have lots of
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  Speaker 1: videos of babies laughing, which enough, which might be the
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  Speaker 1: truth the truth. But I'll tell you what, going through
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  Speaker 1: all the different babies laughing out here, I am happier
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  Speaker 1: for the experience. Oh my gosh. That that ought to
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  Speaker 1: be part of therapy for people. Oh I love that.
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  Speaker 1: I was just thinking, why don't I watch a montage
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  Speaker 1: of YouTube videos. There's probably millions of them of babies
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  Speaker 1: laughing at various things every morning or afternoon or whatever.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, oh my, my algorithm is very aware that I'm
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  Speaker 3: pregnant and I am getting all of the adorable baby
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  Speaker 3: videos that you can imagine yes, that's nice, wonderful.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, they have a couple examples of videos, like when
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  Speaker 1: something really incongruent happens, like mom is putting the balloon
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  Speaker 1: in front of her face and moving the balloon in
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  Speaker 1: the faces there or whatever, and the baby.
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  Speaker 2: Just busting a gud laughing over and over again. Oh oh,
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  Speaker 2: that's the great thing about babies. You can lean on
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  Speaker 2: your best bits. They don't get tired of them. They
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  Speaker 2: never say heard it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh this old it's rarectly get heckled by a baby.
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  Speaker 2: Tell you what though, baby's got zero appreciation for irony.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, they just you can explain it to them
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  Speaker 1: over They.
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  Speaker 4: Just don't get it.
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  Speaker 1: Complex wordplay right, exactly, wordsmith ory right. I like when
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  Speaker 1: they reached the point where the best form of humor
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  Speaker 1: for them is discovering gravity. Basically sitting in the high
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  Speaker 1: chair and I can take this cup of milk, turn
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  Speaker 1: it upside down and pour it on the floor, not funny,
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  Speaker 1: and they just laugh and laugh and laugh right right.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 2: I was so glad I read some great books when
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  Speaker 2: when Kate, when Judy was pregnant with Kate, our first kid,
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  Speaker 2: about how what a learning experience that is for kids,
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  Speaker 2: and if they throw something off of their their little
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  Speaker 2: tray or whatever, they're actually they're learning a lot for that.
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  Speaker 2: So don't leap right to the no no no card.
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  Speaker 2: You know you can, you can correct the behavior, but
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  Speaker 2: it's and once you get hip to that and you
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  Speaker 2: see kids interacting with the world and looking at you know,
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  Speaker 2: flowers and birds and clouds and the rest of it,
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  Speaker 2: it's just it's magical, which is why it just breaks
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  Speaker 2: my heart to see, you know, at least the mom's
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  Speaker 2: taking the kid for the walk, but the mom's taking
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  Speaker 2: the kid to the walk, and they're just on their
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  Speaker 2: cell phone scrolling through it or looking at it and
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  Speaker 2: not talking to the kid, not pointing out what they're
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  Speaker 2: seeing and stuff like that. Oh, it's terrible.
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  Speaker 3: So I have a question about what you just said.
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  Speaker 3: They learn a lot from throwing things off of the
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  Speaker 3: tray and whatnot. I just saw an ad for this
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  Speaker 3: product that is a matt and it has a bunch
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  Speaker 3: of little attachments with little bungies so that when they
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  Speaker 3: throw the thing off of the tray, it falls and
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  Speaker 3: then the video it shows the baby like realizing it's
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: still there and picking it back up.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think that's a bad thing. I doubt any
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  Speaker 1: harm would be done, but that's interesting. Yeah, another thing
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  Speaker 1: they're figuring out. Yeah, the baby bungee. Getting back to
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  Speaker 1: the seriousness of about this again, and this woman, this PhD,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: is kind of confused that we haven't done this in
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  Speaker 1: the past. But as every pair knows, there's all kinds
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: of milestones that you keep an eye on and your
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: pediatrician asks you about, and stuff like that. Walking, talking,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: you know, making sounds, just all kinds of different things
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  Speaker 1: if you're on schedule or not. But for whatever reason,
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  Speaker 1: they've never done that with humor. Although walking and talking
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  Speaker 1: tend to steal the show, simply laughing is just as
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  Speaker 1: important a milestone, And to understand if they're cognitively complex,
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  Speaker 1: brain is coming along at the right speed, and they've
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  Speaker 1: just never measured does your kid laugh at stuff as
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: opposed to have they started walking or talking?
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  Speaker 3: It's a milestone.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Now.
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  Speaker 3: I know a few of my friends they they've been
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  Speaker 3: keeping very close track to when their baby starts to laugh.
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  Speaker 1: Oh really, that's interesting. I don't remember anybody asking when
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: has he started laughing? Yet, of course the answer might
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: be maybe you're not funny, Maybe You're just really not funny.
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  Speaker 1: You are not. You think you're Trevor Noa. You think
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  Speaker 1: Trevor Noa's waybe he ever laughed? Probably not, I doubt it.
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  Speaker 1: In the video below, a fourteen month old baby offers
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: food to his dad, then suddenly reniggs feeding himself instead
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  Speaker 1: to entertain his laughing parents. When you cross the milestone
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: into your doing humorous bits, like you're not laughing at
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: the incongruity or something or the surprise somebody else is
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: doing to you, you're doing it to someone else. And
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: that's also a fantastic milestone the comedian when they decide
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: they can make you laugh with you know, want some
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  Speaker 1: of my food? I put it in my mouth. Think
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: about what's happening. Neurologic, right, that's what it's esthetic like
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: that How complex that is? It's actually pretty complicated. That's awesome. Yeah, huh.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: If I could get a smile out of my high schooler,
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  Speaker 1: it'd be something.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: Talk to your baby, Read to your baby, take your
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: baby for walks, talk to them.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: Trevor knows baby, just sit there, stone faced.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Hey mommy, Look he seems like a nice nuff fella.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: But what's the appeal.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: He's not funny.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: For me, it was peekaboo and physical comedy that always
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: got the good laughs. Pretending to hurt yourself. So yes,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Pratt falls, that's real. Yep, Well, I guess that's it.